Anna [When we were all talking about love languages, Dad explains how you can change over your life]"Oh yeah, totally. 'Cause I used to be into drawing."

Anna [after falling off her bike]"I'm OK! I don't need the arcade kit!"

Dad [Getting ready to give a gift to the girls for their piano recital]"Alright girls, we're going to do something that's long overdue."Anna "Ha. Probably taxes..."

Josh [After reading Peter's sign that said, "DJ takes requests, and tips] "Hey. I have a tip for you. If people don't like the song you're playing, you should change it."

Anna "Sometimes I look around and think, I am Anna...and these are other people..."

Josh "Listen. You give me the Simon's Quest code and I'll shop in the women's section!"

Josh "You smell like an air freshener, Mom."Dad "oh Josh those are kind of cheap so that sounds like you’re kind of insulting Mom when you say that."Josh "MMMMmmmm…you smell like a $100 air freshener."

Anna "Mom. Where’s the first Bible ever. Like ever."Mom "Ummm, I’m not sure. But maybe you could ask Dad about that"Anna "Well. I was gonna, but I didn’t want to get a whole sermon…so I asked you"

Dad "Hmm. These chips taste stale."Mom "They're not stale. They're just from Aldi."

Dad: [After listening to the long piano intro to Chicago's Does anybody really know what time it is?] "I don't like that dissident music. It's all crazy and off time."Anna: "I like it! 'Cuz that's how I play!"

Paul: "So according to this book kids, who shot JFK?"Josh: "Lee Elvis Hardwell?"

Paul: "How Many Kings by Downhere is a perfect running song. The beat is just my pace."Jen: "Oh yeah? My song is Canon in D."

Anna[while washing herself in the shower]: "Hmmmmm. Arms are helpful."

Remember when…

1. People would load up all their kids, drive 9 hours just to visit and then drive another hour just to visit some more?

2. Siblings would come over and just start re-decorating (with permission, of course) your whole entire living room for you, on a whim?

3. Parents would drive all the way out to your house amidst total chaos with, at times, 10+ children running everywhere, just because they wanted to be with everyone?

4. Co-workers would drop everything and drive you back to the city park a mile away from work to look for your keys?

5. A co-worker would leave a social gathering when he found your keys in the back of his car, to drive them to you back at the office to make sure you could get home?

6. A co-worker already 10 or more miles away, would offer to turn around and drive all the way back to make sure you got home OK if you didn’t find your keys? (What’s up with the keys, Paul?!)

7. A neighbor would offer to take all your dirty dishes, in the middle of your kitchen remodel project, back to her house and wash the entire pile in her dishwasher, then pull them all out when they were done and call you to tell you you could come get them?!

8. A store clerk would actually warn you about bad washing machines to stay away from so you didn’t waste your money on a major purchase?

9. Another store clerk would allow you to get your husband’s military discount even when your husband wasn’t there to show his ID?

10. Your friend, who knew you were shopping for a new crock pot, would call up and say, “Hey, just to make your day easier, I’m going to the same store, why don’t I just pick yours up for you, get the same discount with my coupon and then bring it over to your house?” [!]?

11. Children from ages 11 down to 1 would play so well together both inside and outside? (preferably outside, thank you)

12. And many, many more…

These were the glory days. A time long since lost for good? Any chance that we’ll ever see times like this again?

All of these things happened to our family yesterday.

We are overwhelmed with thankfulness. We don’t deserve such kind family members, neighbors, co-workers and friends. Who are we that the Lord would shower us with such wonderful gestures of friendship, support and generosity?

Notable quotable

"Being different is not legalism - legalism is when you try to earn your way to God through your good works - it's just holy living." -Laura Mouro

"I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements:
noise, hurry and crowds . Satan is quite aware of the power of silence."-Jim Elliot

"I have learned that God’s silence to my questions is not a door slammed in my face. I may not have the answers—but I do have him."-Dave Dravecky

"Sin makes government necessary; sin also makes it necessary that government be limited."-Paul Edwards

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else."-CS Lewis

"Being a stay at home Mom is much like recovering from an addiction. An addiction to thinking it's all about me"-Abbey Bertolone

"It is better to be without bread in your houses than without Bibles, for the words of God's mouth are and should be to you more than your necessary food. But what will it avail you to have Bibles in your houses, if you do not use them? To have the great things of God's law and gospel written to you, if you count them as a strange thing? You look daily into your shop-books, and perhaps converse much with the news books, and shall your Bibles be thrown by as an almanac out of date?"-Matthew Henry

Biblical definition of marriage: "...two sinful people pledging to live together with all of their faults, for the rest of their lives"-Gary Thomas in Sacred Marriage

"The gospel teaches a "new way to be human," which, in reality, is nothing more than returning to the "old way to be human," the way that God had originally ordained before sin. " -Eric Rauch